


Bane

by LaeliDee



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-05
Updated: 2013-04-05
Packaged: 2017-12-07 12:24:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/748474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaeliDee/pseuds/LaeliDee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fresh from the fires of a forge, Bane has a very interesting life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bane

**Author's Note:**

> A short episodic story, taking an inanimate object and giving it both life and personality. 
> 
> This is one of the most interesting challenges I've been set in writing more recently and I enjoyed every moment of writing it. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy reading ~

From hot fires I was born. Tempered into existence. Heated, battered, cooled and twisted. I was broken down and remade until my creator was satisfied I was strong enough for whatever purpose he planned for me. As a final test I was placed against something hard and it ground at my sides and I cried out until my creator stopped. He ran something soft against the edge and I felt my tortured edge split it effortlessly. I must have done wrong because he shut me away in a soft wooden darkness, I was unaware of anything outside of this void for what felt like a very long time.

Darkness was my only companion until one day my world filled with light again. I am picked up by a gentle hand and held with a delicate reverence. A name is whispered and I can feel that it is mine. Bane.

The darkness returned and I tumbled against the wooden sides of the darkness, but it did not last; the darkness above me was lifted although I stayed in the softness where I lay, unable to see anything outside of it, but I heard a voice. 

Reaper was the only one that spoke to me; he told me that he was a bow and had been around a very long time. He knew a lot and I learned a lot from him as I lay in the softness – the box, that kept me safe. He told me that I would be Mistress' new companion; that I was expected to kill on her command and protect her when she was in trouble, if Reaper was unable to.

I was kept in the box during the day, but when night fell and Mistress rested, I was placed beneath the softness where she lay, from there I protected her. After a few days passed, Mistress was kind enough to gift me with tight leather which I slipped into snugly. From there I could always be at her side.

My first test came not long later; a stranger came to visit, Mistress didn't seem to like him because she threatened him with me; I scared him because he backed away and did not come close to her as I protected her. Words were exchanged and the stranger gave Mistress what sounded like metal wrapped in leather. Reaper told me that it was money, that Mistress had been paid for a contract. He said that she would be paid to 'deal with' people. He didn't tell me what would happen, because it was never the same.

Together we travelled with Mistress, Reaper was slung over her back and I was at her side. For most of the journey, we were sat on a horse, I wasn't keen on it, the bumpy movements were too much, Reaper told me I would get used to it, although I wasn't so sure. I was happy when we left the horse and Mistress made a camp for the night, I stayed with her as she rested, ready to protect her. 

We were back on the horse the next day and I didn't like it any more, I knew Reaper was lying this time. It was late when he told me we had arrived, he was left to wait with the horse, hidden in the trees. Alone I went with Mistress, staying at her side as we snuck through the silent streets under the cover of night.

We crouched outside of a door and I waited as she picked the lock and we slipped through the door. It was very quiet inside; Mistress took me in her hand so I could see, it looked like a home, but there was no light at all. Slowly we crept upstairs and she shifted her grip on me as we entered the resting room. There was someone laying on the bed and Mistress drew me closer so I could see. Then it happened so fast, in one movement, my sharp edge ran across soft skin until I was covered in red. Mistress didn't seem bothered by this and she wiped me against cloth, although not all of the red came off and I could feel it drying on me as I was redressed in my leather.

We returned to the horse and Reaper tried to talk to me, asking me questions about what had happened and I answered as best as I could; he told me that it was typical for my job and that I had done it right. I took my first life and the blood that was drying on me wouldn't be the last that I would ever feel. The horse ride home didn't bother me.

After that first contract was completed, Mistress seemed to trust that I could do my job so well so I travelled with her wherever she went, taking many lives, protecting her when Reaper couldn't. We worked well together me and Reaper; I learned everything that I knew from him.

The night I lost him, was the night we both failed Mistress. She had been paid for another contract but because it was not far away, she left Reaper at home. We were alone as we travelled to the town to meet with someone, she was planning on using a poison on the target, I was there just in case it didn't work. We snuck into the house unhindered and found the medicine on the bedside table, she emptied the poison vial into it and left it on the side ready to be used the next morning. Sneaky. It was not the first time I'd seen her work like that, some people wanted a contract dealing with in a less 'messy' way than was my method. 

As we made our way out of the house, someone spotted us and called for the guards, people clad in metal that was very difficult for me to bite through. Mistress held me in her hand, I was ready to protect her as she ran. As she ran her steps suddenly became uneven and she stumbled. I slipped from her grip and slid under a bench.

I was hidden away under the shadows of a bench for days and nights until someone picked me up again. I did not like the feel of this man, he did not hold me right, he couldn't wield me like Mistress could. I had been waiting for her to come and find me, but as the man threw me into a bag he with gold and silver, things to be worn, I realised that she would never find me. I learned that he had taken others in the bag from their owners as well. They told me that we were going to be sold to a 'fence'.

We were all tipped out onto a table and the fence took me in his hand carelessly, I wanted to bite into him, but he was careful to keep his hands away from my edge. He gripped me roughly, twisting and turning me in every direction, pulling me and digging my beautifully sharp edge into a table to test me before stabbing me into the wood. It hurt to be standing in there and the table didn't feel comfortable with it either.

I was not there long before people came, I could feel their hands and I did not like them. Some would pull me from the table, some gripped me squeezing the life from me, swinging me in the air carelessly. Others would have a weaker grip and I would fall on the floor. Some grabbed me at both ends, bending me as if I could break. I did not like any of these hands. I would only catch glimpses of faces, most were hidden in darkness of hoods, as if they did not want to be recognised; 'thieves' they'd been called by Reaper, I missed him, I needed his company; I was so lost in this new world away from him and Mistress. No one there would talk to me, they were afraid of being noticed, but I was there, stuck in a table in the middle of the room being pulled and swung and squeezed. None one wanted me though, at the end of it all, I would just be wedged back into the poor groaning table.

I was exchanged a while later and taken to another 'shop', these must have been a different type of people because they were not as rough looking as those who had been tormenting me before. I was placed into a glass case, although it was in the back of the shop, where no one really looked. I was blunted and not in the condition I had been when Mistress looked after me, no one wanted me.

I was there for what felt like an eternity before gentler hand took me, it was not Mistress, but it felt like I belonged there, he must have realised it as well because he made an exchange for me and I was taken out of that place. I didn't know who this was but he cared for me, cleaned and polished me and returned my brilliantly sharp edge. I was given a new leather, although he did not seem to know my name because he gave me a new one, to him I was 'Tool'.

I got used to being with Master, he didn't work as Mistress had, I was used for cutting ropes and killing animals, only once was I used against another person, but Master was attacked, I protected him as I had Mistress but he let his attacker get away. Mistress would have had me kill them. I didn't understand Master at all. His hands were weak and would sometimes shake as he gripped me, as days and nights passed, this became more and more frequent. Soon he just left me in my leather beside the bed and he stayed in it, not wanting to get up, or unable to, I didn't understand it. He withered and was just...gone...dead...but he'd not been injured, how did this happen?

Master's son took me than and bound me on a wall, I was not used at all then; people would stare at me and talk, but no one picked me up. What had I done? I longed to be in someone's hand again, even cutting rope and digging dirt from horses feet. The people withered as Master had, from watching I learned that it was natural. Tiny things came into the house, 'children' they were called; they slowly grew into normal people, yet still no one would touch me, the 'children' would get shouted at if they tried to touch me. I only wanted to be held.

Flames spread one night, I could feel the heat from another room, not as hot as the fires that I had been created from, but the tendrils came, licking their way into the room, swallowing everything in their path, even I was scorched by them. The flames freed me from my bindings but I fell into them, laying helpless on the floor, why was no one coming for me?

It took a long while for the flames to die but there was nothing left of the house, no people, no walls, I was partly buried under rubble. Water fell and drowned me and then snow blanketed me, hiding me from view. The warm sun was slow to return; this happened many times and colours started growing around me, binding and choking me.

I have been out here for a very long time, my once beautifully sharp edge dulled, I am flaking and falling apart. The leather around my handle has been worn away and the wood beneath is rotting. I am ensnared in weeds, hidden under rubble. 

No one will ever find me.


End file.
